Stoking Up A Convention

John Wubbel posted:

 

I plan to be at the Strasburg meet on August 10th and Indianapolis Midwest Meet in September.

 

Please stop by my tables in Strasburg on Saturday, John.

For sure I will be looking for you on Saturday.

John Wubbel posted:

...... in partnership with the NMRA Gateway 2020 Convention. .......

Why ?     Are you an NMRA member ?

SZ

I am a NMRA member as well as memberships in a good number of other organizations that I support.

Why?

The answer to this "why" kind of evolved. Upon having many long discusses with model railroaders in the 2 rail community, their national conventions have been an annual event for the last 50 some years. A dual concern of continuity and declining attendance at meets as well as where to have the next convention. Through some brainstorming and a little R&D suggested a central location in the country rather than east coast or west coast national in year 2020. I floated the idea to have a convention with the NMRA National in 2020. A few of us had a meeting with the St. Louis 2020 chairman and they were very supportive of the idea. In thinking about the possible synergies and the dual goal of bringing new young men and women into the hobby, registrations could improve significantly. Dealers and vendors have contacted me and said they thought it was a good marketing approach. Now this is not to say there will not be a lot of problems to solve along the way, but with a committed leadership team in place, I think we could make attendees very happy. I have attended many NMRA National & O Scale or SONC conventions over the years. In fact, I attended the NMRA convention that was last held in St. Louis in 1970 and had a grand time with my Grandfather. It was time for me to try and give a little something back to the hobby that has given me work/life balance over the years and enjoyment. I hope you would consider joining my efforts or supportive in any way you feel for your comfort level.

Regards,

John

John Wubbel posted:

........ a convention with the NMRA National in 2020. A few of us had a meeting with the St. Louis 2020 chairman and they were very supportive of the idea. In thinking about the possible synergies and the dual goal of bringing new young men and women into the hobby, registrations could improve significantly.

Am I understanding you to say that this 0 National would be a 'subset' [ or "part of " ] the NMRA convention and that hence convention registration would be through them ?  Is the $150 [ + $65 for "spouses" ] NMRA convention registration fee applicable to both members and non-members ?   I notice that the host hotel rates won't be available until 2020 but that daily parking is $27.

Are the sales tables for individuals in the hotel, or in the Convention Center 5 - 7 blocks away ?

SZ

I do not have answers yet to your questions as it is to early. As per my past post I am looking for some committed volunteers so we can organize, develop and plan a program. We realize there are a thousand questions when first starting out. Realize we will be liaison with the NMRA Core Team and all legal and event matters will be worked on and hopefully worked out to everyone's satisfaction. I am planning to start workshop meetings and do such things as align sponsors. As soon as we have concrete decisions made and commitments in place of course we will be publishing them as soon as possible so people can plan ahead. As I mentioned, only some very exploratory and preliminary work has been done thus far.

John

Dear Ladies, Gentlemen, and scale modelers of all walks,

Since my last post here an Executive Committee (EC) of volunteers has convened to develop and plan the National O Scale Convention for 2020. Last Thursday, the SONC2020 web site was made public with the information that we have to date. 

http://sonc2020.com or

http://www.sonc2020.com

This site will be updated on a very regular basis with new information as we work through all the tasks of putting on a convention. You may also note our convention logo with the Republic Locomotive Switcher the RX500.

In answer to SZ question above, hotel registration at the Hilton Ball Park as published by the NMRA will be $134.00 per night plus taxes. See http://www.gateway2020.org Registration for rooms will start in January or February. The NMRA convention fee is $150.00 and for your significant other $65.00. 

Our mission is to promote 2 Rail O Scale and introduce to new comers to the hobby not only 2 Rail, but all the other flavors 3 Rail, Proto-48, Narrow Gauge and Traction. Thus, as O Scalers we will not be losing our identity and so our registration for our July 16th - 18th is structured to accommodate those outside our hobby such as college students or model makers from the 3D printing realm to grow our numbers, memberships and even media subscriptions. All National O Scale registration purchases will be hosted on the secure NMRA Web Site Store very soon as well as convention cars that we have planned. We will have our own convention badges as well for O Scale attendees.

http://gateway2020.org/store/i...04ch681benk7sg03od20

I plan myself to attend as much of the NMRA activities as possible before the start of SONC2020 but it is not necessary to purchase the NMRA registration to attend our activities. However, since we are working in conjunction with the NMRA, shared activities will be available to our attendees such as layout tours, industrial facilities tours, clinics, etc. We would also like to show the modelers in the smaller gauges what O Scale has to offer, thus the more presence the better.

We are still in the process of working on the problems around the vendor with respect to the location and costs. The EC is well aware of all the issues and we are working with the chairman of the NMRA convention to come up with the best arrangements, particularly for the smaller vendors.

At the present time we have 1 dedicated room for clinics across all 3 days open from 8:00am to 9:00pm. We are working to get commitments from people that want to share their expertise and a schedule will be forth coming. If you wish do to a clinic or have any suggestions, please let us know as soon as possible.

We are also consolidating our list of vendor contacts from previous meets and shows around the country and will be sending vendors a short survey to learn more about their needs. If a vendor does not get a survey notice in the email, the contact form on the web site should be adequate to get in touch with our team. 

Thank you for your attention and we hope to see you in St. Louis.

Best Regards,

John Wubbel

John Wubbel posted:

In answer to SZ question above, hotel registration at the Hilton Ball Park as published by the NMRA will be $134.00 per night plus taxes. See http://www.gateway2020.org Registration for rooms will start in January or February. The NMRA convention fee is $150.00 and for your significant other $65.00. 

 

A bit confusing, John. 

On the web site there is a different registration schedule:

• Pre-Show Advanced Registration Open Until June 15, 2020: $40.00
• Registration After June 15th: $45.00
• Significant Other Registration $20.00
• Student Registration 18 years & older with School ID $20.00
• General Public 1 Day July 18th Advanced Registration $20.00
• General Public 1 Day July 18th Registration $25.00
• O Scale Kings Member in Good Standing Registration Discount $5.00 off Advanced Registration Price
• Qualified O Scale Kings Member Convention Volunteer: Registration Waiver

Thank you for your comment. Perhaps I can clarify.

Putting on a convention our first order of business is our ability to fund the event over a finite project lifetime. Volunteer groups like ours do not start out with a pot of money so we have to try and project and be able to cover expenses. In order to do that we hope that our registration structure will help us break even when all things are said and done.

Pre-Show Advanced Registration Open Until June 15, 2020: $40.00 allows us to begin receiving income early just like selling a convention car or renting vendor tables. It also allows us to pre-print badges and give us an early indication of how many may attend the convention.

Registration After June 15th: $45.00 thus the incentive to register early.

Significant Other Registration $20.00 meaning a spouse, partner or family member not into model railroading but attends the convention together.

Student Registration 18 years & older with School ID $20.00 as per our mission to invite new folks into 2 Rail O Scale hobby particularly STEM students, we want to have a lower registration as an incentive.

• General Public 1 Day July 18th Advanced Registration $20.00
• General Public 1 Day July 18th Registration $25.00

In past National O Scale Conventions the general public has been invited because that is where many are considering taking up the hobby but may not have decided on a gauge to model. Thus we want to show them what O Scale has to offer.

O Scale Kings Member in Good Standing Registration Discount $5.00 off Advanced Registration Price - If you are already an O Scale Kings member we want you to come to the show and since OSKs is one of our sponsors we think a good membership showing during and in front of NMRA members is a good thing.

Qualified O Scale Kings Member Convention Volunteer: Registration Waiver - We are looking for volunteers to not only help us with our 3 day meet but also with the NMRA. NMRA will pay OSKs for volunteer hours and if we can attract some of the modelers in the smaller scales to O Scale in the process we will have grown our numbers.

The whole idea about growing and bringing new persons into the O Scale side of the hobby is to also have an organization like the OSKs to be able to promote 2 Rail O Scale but also to be able to fund future conventions if we are to keep having annual conventions. 

I hope this sheds some light on the subject for you. If you have any suggestions our EC team would love to hear from you.

John

All that was obvious, John.

The $150 NMRA registration in your post was what I was questioning along with the link to the NMRA Product Page Registration - avoiding confusion as to which gets you what might be something good to explain... 

John,

I think that you are on the right track to hold the 2ROS convention in conjunction with the NMRA National.  I believe that posting information about the convention on this forum will spark interest and get the information out to a wider audience. I am going to try to attend both conventions.  Joe Barker

MWB,

I wish that I could talk for the NMRA. However, they are like our group in the early stages of development and planning the NMRA Gateway 2020. I have heard some tidbits here and there, I would not though be able to confirm anything. I suspect when they are ready, they will publish the details of their program with schedules to answer your questions and how that is going to weave together with our program. And I do know they need volunteers so as a volunteer one can learn about these things and goings on ahead of time. How about stepping up and volunteer at some point now or at show time?

John

Dave,

So glad to hear from you. I know you were a big volunteer contributor to the SONC2018 in Rockville. Sorry for the confusion. Attendees have options, they can pay for the NMRA only and ignore us. Or, attendees can register for our O Scale 2 Rail only and not participate in the NMRA. The NMRA registration does not automatically include full participation in the O Scale National nor does our registration include full participation in the NMRA. Our partnership and having the 2 conventions together has several intentions. First, we want to give modelers and hobbyists more reason to come to St. Louis and drive attendance higher. Second, certain synergies like sharing the convention facilities, there will be certain shared activities available for both type of paid attendees from both venues. For example, clinics and layout tours. I believe this will become more clear once the NMRA and the SONC2020 Programs get published. Given the NMRA starts on Monday and SONC2020 overlaps starting on Thursday, makes it such that if a person cannot take off the whole week for the NMRA, they can at least take in a whole lot of model railroading with a 3 day or single day participation.

The Executive Committee from the Rockville convention recommended to our team to help the NMRA where ever we can and thus our ability as O Scalers or members of the OSKs have an opportunity to show to all of the NMRA attendees what O Scale has to offer. In my vacation budgeting process for next year I plan to pay for both registrations and fully participate that week because I want to support both the NMRA and our collective O Scale 2 Rail Community. Thus, I should have a NMRA & a SONC2020 Badge. But, as an attendee at this stage of convention development I would wait to see what the NMRA offering is and the SONC2020 before making a decision. Hopefully, by the early part of next year Jan. or Feb. the programs will be ready.

With regard to the web site. You might note that this WP template is the same as OSKs, the Indy Midwest Show site, etc. that is because Dan Dawdy is hosting it for us. I have been the admin for constructing the SONC2020 convention site. I can probably throw on a Comodo CA for ssl purposes and I will ask Dan about that shortly. However, we will not have any commercial transactions or shopping cart execution on the SONC2020 site. All purchases will be done on the NMRA web store which is secure with any products, convention cars, registration, etc. Note, we have not setup up our registration yet with the NMRA web store. That is on our "to do" list. I decided early on, implementing a shopping cart capability on the site is to much work for the small team of volunteers we have. The site for visitors is informational only.

Thanks again for your communication. Any suggestion or advice from you is sincerely welcome and will go to our EC for discussion or if you wish to sit in on our Zoom Video Conferences let me know to send you an invitation.

John

Much clearer!!!

Thank you, John!